26.2 Mile training Run

Perfect weather. Great trail. Good company. Awesome day for running.

Glen and I started out slow running 8:15's or so, talking about running (what else?) and bits and pieces of everything else. I tried to slip in the "you should run the 100 with me" whenever I could as Glen is probably the one I could most likely talk into doing this with me. We planned on running 25, but figured we might as well run a marathon since we were close enough. Eventually we settled into a decent pace of about 8:00 per mile - not bad for a training run - and occasionally ran a bit faster. My legs were feeling pretty good as I was sick for most of the week. There were quite a few people on the trail considering it was kind of cool and a bit foggy. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Just before and after the turnaround of 13.1 miles there were a bunch of people on the trail for some sort of organized walk. I never want to discourage people from being outside and being active, but walking three abreast on a trail is not the best of trail etiquette. No matter, we weaved in and out of the walkers, crossed the bridges and made our way back to Duvall. It's funny how the longer you run the less and less the conversation there is. In the beginning it was nonstop, at mile 24 it was nonexistent. We finished in 3:28 or so according to my watch, Glen had some coffee at his in laws while I tried to get some of the kinks out of my legs. Overall I felt really good the entire run. And it's a lot easier to do with other people.

Sunday morning I wake up, look at the clock and see it's 7:30. Then I get to thinking....Shit! When I do a 100 mile race there is a chance that I may not even be done by this time, if I started the race yesterday morning when I started my 26.2 @ 0815. I'll just have to put the longevity of a 100 mile race out of my mind. Of course it's long distance to run, it's long in a car or on a bike too.

Sunday afternoon I ran with Glen and Joleen on the trail while pushing my baby girl in the jog stroller. It was her first run so I was a bit nervous on how it would go. She slept through it all no problem though. Joleen and Glen ran a bit quicker than I was ready for, especially pushing the stroller. I think we probably did the last 5 at about 7:20 pace. It was easy for the lungs to handle, but the legs were tired from the previous day.

Great weekend of running though. Lots of fun and the training was good.

Bouncing Souls

I finally got to see these guys live. It was pretty cool. They sounded about how I expected them to sound. The singer kind of has a monotone (baritone) voice, looks like he just crawled out of bed and threw a tie on, has dance moves like me and nonetheless it was a fun time. They played lots of older songs, which is what I would expect from a band that's been around for 20 years. The crowd was really into it, jumping on stage all throughout the night before front flipping into the crowd. Broadway Calls and Bayside were the openers, I liked Broadway Calls, Bayside was kind of lame - sounded a bit too emo-ish for me. Now, if Bad Religion would just come back to Seattle, or face to face if during their off again on again retirement/reunion would somehow make it up here.

4 hours of sleep and I made it to work. Still getting over a cold though. Have to run 25 miles on Saturday; legs should be fine as I haven't done crap this week. February will be here before I know it - that's what I'm afraid of.

Interesting Project about the existence of God

http://www.cornellevolutionproject.org/

There is a definite correlation between education and believing in the existence of God -at least in terms of the people with science backgrounds. It appears that almost 60% of the people polled in this PH. D paper from Greg Graffin at Cornell University believe there is not a single God that exists. Of course these people all have science backgrounds, and if you try to use science to prove the existence of God it will make things difficult. I'm not saying I believe one way or another, I just say I don't think any religion or going to church is for me. But I am interested in this topic when it is looked at by people with an education, and not just some zealot with a view that cannot be changed one way or the other. Anyway, check this out if you're bored, and you must be or you wouldn't be reading this. I'd write more, I could probably write forever about this subject but I gotta run, and chances are I wouldn't be able to explain anything concisely, instead I'd end up tripping over my words like a drunken teenager walking through the woods on a Friday night. So take it however you want, but keep your mind open and think for yourself.

Baker Lake 50K - 10/3/09

Here is me and my Baker Bear. I was pretty excited to get a bear. I wasn't real excited about my time. But then again I never am and that's what keeps me coming back to races. And now I know what I look like when I'm holding my daughter...a dork!

The Baker Lake 50K is an awesome race. Very low key but lots of fun. The weather was perfect. 40 at the start, 50 at the finish - sunny! With a quick chat from the race directors and final instructions of "Do not feed the bears" we were off. Great course- no pavement except for running across the top of the Baker Damn, great views, nice people, and a lots of "undulating" hills. With a bridge out from flooding the previous year we had to run up a fire road for the first 4 miles, it was a nice 1100 foot climb to get the body warmed up. We turn around and bomb down the same fire road to the single track 2.5 miles later. And then the trail will turn, go up, down, over a log, across a creek, again and again, never flat or boring, for the next 23 miles. It was awesome! The wooden bridges were wet and covered in moss, pretty treacherous - I was using wet leaves for traction -never thought I would resort to that. I ran alone for most of the race in 3rd or 4th place o/a, passing some of the early starters with a quick wave and a smile. It was pretty uneventful for the most part - but memorable for sure. The only problem I had was losing 2 gels somewhere. I still can't figure where they went; running the last 13+ miles on a single gel. Oh well, I bonked a little bit, but it didn't diminish the experience much. I fell once (now called either Wrayed or Layed out) because I'm a klutz and was getting tired, my handheld water bottle cushioned my fall. The finish is at the Kulshan campground and I believe there were about 12 people there to cheer me on. Lots of great food, Subway sandwiches, cakes, cookies, everything you could ask for after 5 hours of running. I ended up 3rd overall and 1st in the Male Open 39 & Under group - the Masters guys rock at the long stuff. I'll never understand why trail running isn't more popular - it is so refreshing to get out on the trails and be miles and miles from electronic leash.

Conundrum + other notes

I.

There are all these books I want to read. I don't really like going to the library because it is very difficult to get to; unless I start incorporating some training runs by there.

Am I being wasteful purchasing a book, which obviously comes from trees, about the environment? I like to purchase the books because after I read them I go back and use them as references for other things. Also, I like to pass them on to friends and family members to read. So is this selfless task of passing the book and knowledge outweighing the fact that I'm wasting resources purchasing paper copies of books? Should I really be that anal? This really does bother me.

Also, much like eating healthy, being conscious of my actions in terms of the environment (I could have just said green, but I don't really like that buzzword - it makes doing the right thing sound trendy) it can be expensive to make the right decisions. For example, at work we have 5 gallon water jugs - I do not drink out of them but instead walk 100 feet and up some stairs to the water fountain and fill my bottle, which is really getting gross no matter how many times I wash it. But I could buy one of those fancy aluminum ones, but that is 25 bucks. For a water bottle? Are you serious? I work with metals all day at work and know that it doesn't cost anywhere near as much as that to make an aluminum jug.

II.

I have been getting about 108 miles per gallon on my scooter driving to work though. I'm tempted to drive it to Baker Lake for the run but at 40 mph it would take me a long time. I would also most likely freeze my ass off on the way home after my core temperature drops. Being sick wouldn't help anything I guess. I have almost 4000 miles on it since April though, and barely 5000 on my family truckster I bought in January. I am trying to make a difference in spite of the world we live in and the public attitude I face. But I can sleep well at night knowing I'm making what I believe to be the right choices.

III.

Baker Lake 50K is this weekend and I actually feel really prepared. My last tough weekend of training 3 weeks ago I did 27 miles in 3:39:00 and followed it up the next day with a hilly 10 miles @ 8:01 pace. Recovery went great. I've been sleeping too. Well, 6 hours or so a night which is a bit above normal. I don't have the turnover right ow to churn out many 6 minute miles, but I feel like I can run 8:00 minute miles forever. I'm anxious to see how that translates to the trails. As long as I pay attention to my nutrition during the race I should be OK. It should be really fun anyway.

Green Days

I actually accomplished some enviro friendly things at work. But man, what a pain in the ass it is. Seriously. Management jumps on the bandwagon because it makes the organization (or more importantly themselves) look good. But they sure as heck don't want to lift a finger to do anything, and most of the time they are more of a hindrance than anything. This is how a typical conversation goes:

Me: "Hey Mr. Manager, can I do such and such that will save: 1) a bunch of money 2) a bunch of time 3) reduce waste 4) make things reusable, etc."

Mr. Manager replies without every bothering to stop and look at me, "Sure, go for it."

I should ask them if I can have the next 4 months off of work w/ pay to train for a 100 mile running race to see if they are paying attention. I understand they are busy, I am in a meeting with them every morning so I know what the work load is. I'm not asking them to physically do anything though. I'm just asking them to support me 100% as I make process improvements that are in line with the board of director's itinerary. Maybe mention once in a while to their employees that the so called green movement is not really a movement but something everyone from the CEO (who talks of it frequently in the press…greenwash or not) on down should be interested in. The company has all these goals they want to accomplish by 2012. It will be here before we know it and then when time passes and the goal is not met…do we make up a new timeline like other more media intense endeavors? All of this is for the good of the company, the community, and the individual. It's a win win situation for everyone. Stop being so apathetic and help out, do your part, every little bit is welcome.

I know Auden Schedler (Getting Green Done) frequently mentions how hard it is tomake headway in this fight. And I can relate to the fact that more grunts are needed - which is what I am and am comfortable being, but I wish I could just get a couple more people actively involved. Yes, the job we are paid to do is what we need to be focused on because if we do not sell our product we do not have jobs. But there has to be some way that you can become engaged and still do your job well. I don't really spend too much time working on the "green team" stuff, but I feel like I'm making a difference. And I am very thankful for the one person at work that has been so helpful.

80 bucks DOR? WTF?

80 bucks DOR. Are you kidding me? It's not like I've been living a completely sedate lifestyle the past 4 years. I've just been racing bicycles. Pretty much every bike race is 20 bucks. You may see 25 bucks every now and again. And a lot of my races were 75 - 80 miles. Which last a little more than 3 hours. And bike racing does not get the numbers that running does. Stage races, with 4 stages and about 230 miles of racing over 3 days, with support cars, neutral feed zones, etc, and those were 80 bucks. That makes more sense to me.

I know I've been doing this stuff for a long time, and from the prices I remember paying it may seem like it's been a lifetime. I think the first marathon I ran in Virginia Beach in 1993 was 20 bucks. Now I realize I only made about 6 bucks per hour back then, so I had work over 3 hours to pay for entry. Nowadays the 80 dollar entry is earned in a lot less time. However, 80 bucks is still 80 bucks. Early entry does save money and from the price increase I would assume it is highly encouraged. But please…80 bucks is a little steep. And there are races that are plenty more expensive out there. Which is why I run so few races. I don't want to run with 20,000 people, and I prefer to do it off pavement if possible - I assume a lot of people run for the socialization of the event, which is fine, the more active people the better- it's just not my preference. Anyhoo, the 80 bucks thing is a rip. I wonder if I went to the race director 5 minutes before the start and said, "Here's 50 bucks! Can I run?" It's 50 more dollars in his pocket or to a charity or whatever. It's better than running as a bandit which I probably could get away with, but wouldn't feel comfortable doing. I don't want any awards, I don't want a shirt, I just want to make a training run a bit more enjoyable. Is this contradictory to everything else I said? Maybe.

I think I got soured on the whole entry fee inflation a few years back while doing triathlons. I put a comment on one of the checks I wrote to the Kirkland triathlon stating that I thought their race was way overpriced. The promoter, I think her name was Carolyn or something from AA Sports called me and told me to stay home. We then had a pretty lengthy conversation about everything involved, which didn't really shed any light on anything I didn't already know. The one comment she made that pissed me off though was, "I'm sure in whatever your job is you want to make as much money as possible." Well, not if I have to sacrifice my integrity to exploit a chunk of the population for the money, that's just not my style. I haven't been to an AA Sports race in 6 + years, and don't plan on ever going back. They can time the race, just not promote it. I'll never have a problem with paying a large sum of money to race if the entry actually goes to a charity. Earlier in the year I ran a 5K that cost 30 bucks, which is a lot of money for something that won't even take me that long to run. But 100% of the proceeds went to a great cause, so think that is a great thing. When the race benefits the chamber of commerce or the promoter, that's when I draw the line. I understand they need to make money if that is their only job, but for the same reasons I won't go to a Mariners game I won't do an AA sports race, those people are not getting my money.

I was thinking of running the _________ _________marathon as a training run this coming weekend. But after seeing the $80.00 price tag I decided I would be better off doing a solo run on the Centenniel Trail in Snohomish and pocketing the money. I will just carry some Gus, a powerbar, and some water bottles and be ready. I can also spend a lot of the time running on a dirt surface, lost in my thoughts as I plod along for 3 1/2 hours at 8:00 pace. I also don't have to worry about getting caught up in the race as I know I'm in pretty good shape right now. But this is not my goal race.